Bernie Sanders Is Going to Campaign in Pro-Trump Districts to Get More Republican Support for Democrats' $3.5 Trillion Budget Package

By Charles Davis, Business Insider

19 August 21

S Sen. Bernie Sanders is leaving Vermont to pitch the Democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation package to Republican voters in Indiana and Iowa.

Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, has called the proposal the "most significant piece of legislation... since the Great Depression."

Financed by tax hikes on the wealthy and large corporations, it would expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. It would aso provide universal preschool and cap childcare costs for most families at 7% of their income, while guaranteeing paid leave from work for family and personal health obligations.

The package, which needs only 50 votes for final passage in the Senate, currently has no Republican support. But Sanders thinks GOP voters could like what they hear.

"Democrats, Independents, and working-class Republicans all over the country support our plan to finally invest in the long-neglected needs of working families," the senator said in a statement on Thursday.

Sanders will hold townhall meetings on August 27 and August 29: the first in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the other in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His office described both locations as "Republican strongholds," noting that former President Donald Trump got more votes in each the last time he ran, compared to 2016.